EB-5 Third Party Transfers and Intermediary Accounts

The investor should provide enough information to establish who moved capital into the United States on the investor's behalf.

Current INA section 203(b)(5)(L) expressly requires identification of persons who transfer into the United States, on the investor's behalf, funds used to meet the EB-5 capital requirement. The filing should identify each material remitter or intermediary rather than present the final wire as though it came directly from the investor when it did not. Useful records can include passports, company registration, account ownership documents, and transaction records. The explanation should match the bank evidence and describe why the transferor participated. Accurate identification is the starting point for determining whether the transfer is a payment mechanism or represents a separate source of capital.

Family assistance, business arrangements, currency conversion, trust relationships, or other legitimate reasons should be documented rather than assumed.

The investor should explain the legal or practical relationship with the third party and why that person or entity participated in the transfer. Common examples include family assistance, company remittance, trust administration, regulated currency exchange, private exchange, or another documented payment arrangement. The relationship matters because it helps determine who owned the underlying funds and what additional evidence is required. A family member who merely transmits the investor's money presents a different source issue from a family member who provides new money. The filing should avoid ambiguous descriptions such as 'friend helped transfer funds' without explaining the actual financial transaction.

The investor should establish the legal and financial relationship between the investor's funds and the funds remitted by the third party.

A third party remittance should not obscure ownership of the capital being invested. The record should show whether the third party was transferring the investor's own money, exchanging equivalent value, acting for a company owned by the investor, or actually providing a gift or loan. Bank statements, agreements, account records, business documents, and transfer instructions can establish the connection. If the investor first transferred local currency or other value to the remitter, both sides of that transaction should be documented. USCIS should be able to understand why money arriving from another person's account still represents capital lawfully owned or lawfully received by the investor.

If the investor pays local currency to an intermediary and another person sends dollars, the evidence should connect both legs of the transaction.

Currency exchange arrangements often create third party transfer chains because the investor may pay local currency to one intermediary while a different account remits dollars to the United States. The filing should pair those transactions by date and amount, identify the exchanger and any downstream remitter, and explain the exchange method. If the exchanged dollars came from funds owned by the intermediary, additional lawful source evidence may be needed for that side of the transaction. Exchange agreements, bank statements, licensing records, transaction logs, SWIFT records, and a conversion schedule can help establish that both legs of the exchange were lawful and connected.

Where the third party is providing rather than transferring the money, gift or loan rules may apply and require separate source evidence.

A third party who provides money rather than merely transmitting the investor's existing funds may be the actual source. In that circumstance, the transaction should be analyzed under the applicable gift or loan rules instead of being labeled only as a remittance. A genuine gift generally requires donor source evidence and proof that no repayment is expected, while a private loan requires lender source evidence and a bona fide debt transaction. The petition should identify the substance accurately because mischaracterizing a donor or lender as a transfer agent can leave the real source unexplained and create inconsistencies between the narrative and banking record.

• Transferor identification
• Relationship evidence
• Bank statements
• Transfer agreement
• Currency exchange records
• Gift or loan documents if applicable
• Wire confirmations
• NCE receipt records

A third party transfer package should document identity, relationship, source ownership, both sides of the transfer, and the final NCE receipt. Depending on the transaction, useful evidence can include transferor identification, company or trust records, investor and remitter bank statements, exchange agreements, gift or loan documents, licensing records, SWIFT messages, invoices, transaction logs, and wire confirmations. A chronological table can identify each account, owner, date, currency, amount, and corresponding transfer. The objective is to eliminate unexplained changes in account holder or currency so the lawful source and complete path remain clear from the investor's original funds through the EB-5 contribution.